Freezing rain is expected beginning tonight through tomorrow. By tomorrow evening, the freezing rain is expected to change to snow. The Kansas City metro area may receive 5-7 inches of snow, in addition to ice accumulation of 1/10 to 1/3 of an inch. Motorists are advised to drive with caution, as roads will become very slick. Please review the City's snow safety tips to help prepare: http://kcmo.org/CKCMO/NewsArchives/120413B.
City of Kansas City, Mo., snow crews are preparing to respond to the winter weather. For the past few days, City crews have been treating many City streets with a brine solution to help prevent the anticipated ice and snow from bonding to the street surface.
City crews assigned to primary/arterial routes have split into two 12-hour shifts to provide around the clock coverage. They will begin checking routes for slick spots on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 7:30 a.m. Crews on residential snow routes will be on alert tomorrow, and will begin plowing routes when the snow stops during daylight hours - this will most likely begin Sunday, Dec. 22 at 6 a.m.
The City has approximately 6,400 lane miles of pavement in its street system. To keep traffic moving throughout the City during a winter weather event, the snow plan prioritizes plowing into two types of snow routes: primary/arterial routes and residential routes.
On primary and arterial routes, the City's Public Works, Parks and Recreation and Water Services departments collaborate on removing snow and ice from approximately 2,400 lane-miles of pavement and apply salt as needed. These crews plow curb-to-curb and work around the clock.
On residential snow routes, City crews using smaller trucks work 12-hour shifts during daytime hours to provide a passable lane by plowing and applying salt on intersections, hills and curves. As possible, crews will widen the passable lane, which may still have some snow pack due to low pavement temperatures. In the event of severe snow, cul-de-sacs and dead ends will be plowed after arterial, collector and through residential streets. This ensures that City crews may use their resources most effectively.
When snow depths exceed a couple of inches, residents are advised that parking cars off-street during snow plow operations greatly enhances the ability of snow plows to remove snow, especially in cul-de-sacs and dead end streets. Residents parking on signed Emergency Snow Routes should be prepared to find alternate parking locations to avoid vehicles being ticketed or towed.
Residents wanting to report slick spots or missed streets to the City's 311 Call Center should wait 36 hours after snow has stopped falling. While crews are running assigned snow routes, it is assumed that all streets are slick. Only after snow has stopped falling and all snow routes have been run does the City's 311 Call Center accept requests for slick spots and missed streets.
Please visit www.kcmo.org/snow to view the GPS snow plow map and other snow-related updates. To receive text and email notifications from the City, please sign up for the City's Nixle notification system at www.kcmo.org/nixle. Residents may also sign up by texting their ZIP code to "888777."
